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Hector hurried from the house when she had done speaking, and went
down the streets by the same way that he had come. When he had gone
through the city and had reached the Scaean gates through which he
would go out on to the plain, his wife came running towards him, Andromache,
daughter of great Eetion who ruled in Thebe under the wooded slopes
of Mt. Placus, and was king of the Cilicians. His daughter had married
Hector, and now came to meet him with a nurse who carried his little
child in her bosom-­‐ a mere babe. Hector's darling son, and lovely
as a star. Hector had named him Scamandrius, but the people called
him Astyanax, for his father stood alone as chief guardian of Ilius.
Hector smiled as he looked upon the boy, but he did not speak, and
Andromache stood by him weeping and taking his hand in her own. "Dear
husband," said she, "your valour will bring you to destruction; think
on your infant son, and on my hapless self who ere long shall be your
widow-­‐ for the Achaeans will set upon you in a body and kill you.
It would be better for me, should I lose you, to lie dead and buried,
for I shall have nothing left to comfort me when you are gone, save
only sorrow. I have neither father nor mother now. Achilles slew my
father when he sacked Thebe the goodly city of the Cilicians. He slew
him, but did not for very shame despoil him; when he had burned him
in his wondrous armour, he raised a barrow over his ashes and the
mountain nymphs, daughters of aegis-­‐bearing Jove, planted a grove
of elms about his tomb. I had seven brothers in my father's house,
but on the same day they all went within the house of Hades. Achilles
killed them as they were with their sheep and cattle. My mother-­‐ her
who had been queen of all the land under Mt. Placus-­‐ he brought hither
with the spoil, and freed her for a great sum, but the archer-­‐ queen
Diana took her in the house of your father. Nay-­‐ Hector-­‐ you who to